Chapter 48.1: Circling the Wagons
Chapter 47.2: Something Like a Plan
Through the tinted glass of the cylinder, Penny watched Minkus go. The leather-cased device on his back piped a thin stream of exhaust into the air as he beelined toward the Vigilman rising from the ground. Of course, that was also a beeline toward the golem that stood between them.
Chapter 47.1: The Gang Back Together
Minkus panted as he dashed down the final corridor. He could feel his rejuvenation returning, but he’d pushed himself to active exhaustion after putting so much effort into healing Yissa. His thighs burned, and his lungs couldn’t get air fast enough to keep up. It had been some time since he’d channeled this much focused magic continuously.
Chapter 46.4: Ventyr’s War
After a few turns, Ventyr was all but lost; the way out was longer than he recalled and far more twisted than he’d recognized under the blindfold his captors had used. With each corner Minkus bounded around, Ventyr could all but feel the promise of an imminent exit, but each one was a lie. The halls and doorways continued, one after the next after the next, and though his elemental training insisted that Ventyr temper his deepening impatience, he didn’t. The whirlwind of fire and air storming through him felt too good, too rare. Most importantly it felt too powerful. Alongside Minkus’ rejuvenating magic, that swelling storm inside was the only thing keeping Ventyr’s battered body moving.
Chapter 46.3: Moving Target
Still backing away, Ventyr kept his attention on the golem, staff raised in ready defense. Fjornsson needed time to recover himself, but Ventyr had to reach the jade—he had to. He shot glances toward the landing at the north end of the room, the handful of fighters actively engaged behind him, Crusader Yult, and then back to the golem just on the other side of the wide doorway. Earlier, it had been unable to pass through it, being too tall. Ventyr would have to take advantage of that, even if those projectile arms complicated the matter.
Chapter 46.1: The Value of Field Testing
Chapter 45.4: Inevitable Confrontation
Jindel was the first to find her words. “Sergeant, we— appear to be clear, at least for now.”
Everyone took in their surroundings, processing what had just happened. Penny noticed Minkus in particular, though. He frowned curiously at the ceiling. “Does anyone else hear that, or rather not hear that?”
Chapter 45.3: Bombs Away
Shaking her head clear, Penny tried to process their next steps. If they were all going to get out alive, they needed to get Ventyr’s staff into his hands. Penny had never understood why the thing made him stronger, but the carrot swore by —
Chapter 45.2: Entering the Labs
Well inside the eastern building now, Penny, Jindel, Jinkke, and Yult held as tightly as they could to Minkus, who swept through the halls as if trying to escape them. He was, of course, only interested in reaching Ventyr and Yissa as quickly as he could, a fact he apologized for over the sound of the still-blaring alarm every few steps.
Chapter 45.1: Comakk Reacts
The courtyard was in unadulterated chaos. The alarm had been confounding enough, bringing all efforts to a halt and throwing Kikka into a rage at everyone in sight. But now the introduction of human attackers had turned all Kikka’s innumerable death threats into a sudden and disjointed reality. Any krewe members who weren’t running found themselves at the wrong end of various human-made weapons as the bandits cut their way through the hectic crowd.
Chapter 44.2: The Courtyard
“I say we go.” Fjornsson all but growled the words, looking down his thick nose at the two humans and asura. “If any of those big-eared dwarves want to stop us, we just cut through them.”
Chapter 43.2: Alarming Mistakes
Before long Jinkke and Penny reconvened with the two soldiers, who appeared to have been long since roused by the screaming alarm and were fully prepared for the next step, geared and ready to move. Fjornsson spotted them first, calling their incoming position to Jindel as he hoisted his big broadsword into the scabbard over his shoulder. At his hip was the asuran warhammer they’d gotten from the Vigil captain, a tool that looked a great deal smaller when hanging from a norn’s belt.
Chapter 43.1: Penny Turns
The air had stilled and the trees quieted. Despite the shade, a stagnant warmth settled between the mimosas and other broad-leafed trees that composed the thicket, only adding to the claustrophobia that brewed in Penny’s gut. It was a different feeling than the serpentine knot that sat anxiously alongside it—gods, the two had become fast, stomach-turning friends.
Chapter 42.4: Converging Schemes
While Wepp made his way down the steps and along the northern wall of the room, Minkus leapt to the main floor and took off at a jog through the center of the chamber, glancing only long enough at each green tube to determine whether Ventyr or Yissa were inside it. At least, he tried to only glance at them.
Chapter 41.4: Suiting Up
The two of them reached the tree line without any further problems, hopefully disappearing once more from sight. Minkus worked to catch his breath.
Chapter 41.3: Perimeter Defenses
Penny pushed it all out of her mind and set her sights once more on the runaway guard. With a grimace she passed his companion, who still stared wide-eyed at the scene. Leaving him there would probably come back to bite her, but that lock-kneed idiot wasn’t the immediate threat.
Chapter 41.2: Guard Duty
Chapter 41.1: Time Up
If there was anything Christoff Veritas really knew, it was biding time. In some ways, his whole life had been a matter of biding time, just an endless series of events he’d waited for. While his father had lived, he’d sustained the man’s unrelenting training, just waiting for the day he’d perfect the spellcraft of the Veritas bloodline.